Awhile back my friend had leftover fabric and left some for me. It was very bright yellow. I had no idea what to do with it, and kept it for several months.

I shopped around online for clothes in the color yellow to inspire my hunt. I fell in love with this dress, but I realized the reason why I liked it was the mustard color. So I dyed the fabric with a dark brown dye… only for it to turn out like a gross muddy army green. It looked ugly and discouraged me from moving forward with the pattern… So I tried again, only this time using bleach to lighten the color up a bit… and it turned into a lovely mustard color! Thank you bleach! I then started down the long road of making the dress, using the same princess seam pattern from my last refashion. I’m not usually one to start from scratch. I like to buy things and take it in there, shorten it a bit here… but i felt that a circle skirt is easy enough to try out.

It took me all weekend to figure out but I’m so happy with it. I had trouble with the armpit fitting so I had to pin and repin. Every day I try to research and look up sewing tutorials just to keep myself inspired and understand how to finish a dress so that it looks professional. The inside is a hot mess though as I haven’t finished all the seams properly, but since its a knit material, I don’t have to! And yesterday I bought this lovely belt at target for $5.

See that pink fabric in the back? Eventually it’ll turn into something… I hope. Coming soon.

I had this dress I bought from target for $5 bucks for awhile… I’ve worn it a few times but I wasn’t thrilled about wearing it. So I changed it.

The after didn’t turn out as great as I thought. I was taking inspiration from this top but I realized that the stripes and the placement is what made it. It was my first venture into the princess seam, and I made my own pattern from this princess seam generator. I drew out the pattern in adobe illustrator and printed it out! So that was pretty fun and I hope to find more ways to incorporate my cad skills and the like into outfits. That would be cool. Although the top isn’t crazy, at least now I will wear this out more and it won’t sit in my “donate” pile.

I got a job. It is really really cool, and I’m loving it so far. I don’t want to get much in to it though, but its at a small studio in SF called Studio Far. I get to help design bags, and its awesome. I get so excited about it every day. I love it! I am so thankful and blessed to have such an awesome opportunity. Being paid to do what you love is so awesome… It feels too good to be true, so I try to appreciate every day of the job.

Because of this job this whole crafting summer thing hasn’t really happened, but after a very depressing shopping trip today I realized that I need to stop BUYING things to make and use what I already have. (except for shoes, I am on an on going quest to buy good quality shoes after having serious bouts with plantar fasciitis) My goal is to try to upcycle clothes that I’m unhappy with, and slightly alter clothes that I don’t wear because they fit funny.

Trying to get back into sewing. I’ve been having a hard time, with a few botched projects that didn’t turn out. I’ve been doodling stuff, what sucks is I get some great ideas in my head during bike rides and I can’t seem to draw and bike at the same time.

But here is my first real attempt at “upcycling” or refashioning clothing. This was a strapless 3 tiered ruffled dress, but it just made me look too ruffled and fluffy, so I made it into a peplum top.